For 43 springs, Rick Stelmaszek took off for Florida, first as a catcher, then as a minor league manager, then, for 31 of the last 32 years, as bullpen coach for the major league Minnesota Twins.

But not this spring. Fired at the end of last season, when the Twins lost 96 games, Stelmaszek, 64, is back home in south Chicago, where he was raised. He is out of baseball and out in the cold.

"It really hasn't hit me," Stelmaszek said this week while this season's edition of the Twins was working out in Fort Myers, Fla. "What I miss is the weather -- that's what I miss."

Stelmaszek, extraordinarily popular among players, essentially ran spring training for the Twins but missed out in 2011 after undergoing eye surgery.

"Everything's fine; my health is fine," he said.

But he's not in Florida on the field.

"What I miss is the daily action," Stelly said. "You're always on the go, go, go, trying to get things squared up. And the games, watching the players, stuff like that."

Will the former baseball lifer be able to handle being away from the game?

"So far I have," Stelmaszek said. "People have called. I'm getting nice calls. But it's definitely a void -- this is the only thing I've done since high school. The flip side of it is that I've had a good run, so I've got no complaints. I'm not going to cry in my beer about what happened. That's just the way the business works. I look at the bright side."

Stelmaszek probably would have continued in baseball if he had the chance.

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"But the phone wasn't ringing off the hook," he said.

The Twins lost 195 games the previous two seasons. What about this season?

"They'll do all right," Stelly said. "It's not going to be from a lack of effort, I'll tell you that. They'll give it the 100 percent like they always do. Gardy (Twins manager Ron Gardenhire) will get it out of them.

"Right now, this time of year, everybody's got the World Series in their hip pockets. It's optimism to the max. That's the way you have to play it."

If the Timberwolves, who are talking with other teams, make a trade before the Thursday, Feb. 21, deadline, it won't be for immediate help, but for the future. People in the know say the Wolves had nothing in the works Wednesday night.

Former St. Agnes High defensive end Tim Tibesar is among four Minnesotans, including head coach Marc Trestman, on the new Chicago Bears' staff. Tibesar, who will coach linebackers, was an assistant for Trestman with the Montreal Alouettes when they won two Grey Cups.

"It's extremely exciting when you get to coach linebackers at a place that had Dick Butkus, Mike Singletary and now Brian Urlacher and guys like that," Tibesar said.

Of coaching Urlacher, Tibesar, 40, said, "I hope he learns as much from me as I'm going to learn from him."

The University of St. Thomas men's basketball team, ranked No. 1 nationally in NCAA Division III, is 24-1 and leads the country (all divisions) in field-goal percentage (53 percent).

Tayler Hill, the former Minneapolis South High basketball star, is averaging a team-leading 21.1 points as a senior for Ohio State, which hosts the Gophers on Thursday. The 5-foot-10 Hill could be a top-seven WNBA draft pick in April, but the Lynx don't pick until No. 12.

It's a baby girl, Avery, for the Wild's Ryan Suter and wife Becky. She joins son Brooks in the family.

Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers owner who died at age 79 this week, had the admiration of former Minneapolis Lakers coach Johnny Kundla, who turns 97 on July 3.

A couple of years ago, Buss made sure Kundla received a Lakers NBA championship ring.

"He was a wonderful guy, a great leader as owner of the Lakers, and I liked him a lot," Kundla said. "He was one of the best."

As for Kundla, who resides in northeast Minneapolis, the Basketball Hall of Fame member said, "I look like a million, but I'm only 96."

The Minnesota Chapter-NFL Alumni expects a crowd of about 450 and to raise more than $100,000 for local children's charities from its Saturday evening "Caring for Kids" fundraiser gala at the downtown Minneapolis Hilton.

The U.S. Bank Skyway Open mini-golf tournament in downtown Minneapolis tees off at City Center on Friday and goes through Sunday.

DON'T PRINT THAT

It wouldn't be surprising, because talks have slowed so much with an out-of-state suitor, if Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor just decides not to sell majority interest in the team and keep it instead.

Former Twin Matt Capps, now with Cleveland, in a new book, "Closer," on coping with blown saves: "I have the memory of a fish. They bang into the side of a fish tank, and then two seconds later they are doing it again. So if you are the closer, you better not have a good memory."